Protocol to evaluate the viscoelastic response of a polymer suspension to an active agent via oscillatory shear rheometry
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arXiv
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| Natura: | Preprint |
| Pubblicazione: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866914183018184704 |
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| author | Qi, Kai Zou, Qingzhi Pagonabarraga, Ignacio |
| author_facet | Qi, Kai Zou, Qingzhi Pagonabarraga, Ignacio |
| contents | Microorganisms inhabit viscoelastic environments, where their locomotion can deform polymers and trigger local complex viscoelastic responses. However, a systematic approach to quantify such responses remains lacking. Here, we propose a protocol that maps the shear effect induced by an active agent to oscillatory shear rheometry. The central idea is to establish a correspondence between the mean shear rate generated by swimming and that produced by an oscillating plate. In this mapping, the swimming velocity and active stress are translated into an effective oscillation frequency and strain amplitude. The resulting viscoelastic response can then be evaluated by standard oscillatory rheometry. The protocol is validated using lattice Boltzmann simulations of a squirmer embedded in polymer solutions. Our framework is generic and can be naturally extended to active microrheology, providing a pathway to quantify swimmer-induced viscoelasticity. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_06233 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Protocol to evaluate the viscoelastic response of a polymer suspension to an active agent via oscillatory shear rheometry Qi, Kai Zou, Qingzhi Pagonabarraga, Ignacio Soft Condensed Matter Biological Physics Computational Physics Fluid Dynamics Microorganisms inhabit viscoelastic environments, where their locomotion can deform polymers and trigger local complex viscoelastic responses. However, a systematic approach to quantify such responses remains lacking. Here, we propose a protocol that maps the shear effect induced by an active agent to oscillatory shear rheometry. The central idea is to establish a correspondence between the mean shear rate generated by swimming and that produced by an oscillating plate. In this mapping, the swimming velocity and active stress are translated into an effective oscillation frequency and strain amplitude. The resulting viscoelastic response can then be evaluated by standard oscillatory rheometry. The protocol is validated using lattice Boltzmann simulations of a squirmer embedded in polymer solutions. Our framework is generic and can be naturally extended to active microrheology, providing a pathway to quantify swimmer-induced viscoelasticity. |
| title | Protocol to evaluate the viscoelastic response of a polymer suspension to an active agent via oscillatory shear rheometry |
| topic | Soft Condensed Matter Biological Physics Computational Physics Fluid Dynamics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.06233 |